What Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball program have done in the transfer portal is unfathomable. Yet, they are a consistent team in way-too-early top 25 rankings, and for a lot of reasons.
The Bruins will be under the microscope during and before the season, which is a good thing after a disappointing campaign.
College basketball insider Jon Rothstein mentioned Oregon State transfer Tyler Bilodeau as the sleeper piece of this portal class:
Bilodeau is the sleeper of UCLA’s transfer class.
Armed with good size at 6-9, the former Oregon State forward can stretch the defense from the center spot and is a walking mismatch on offense. He averaged 17.8 points and 5.9 rebounds in the Beavers’ final eight games of last season. Either he or Dailey (9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds) is likely to be in the mix to start at power forward. The versatile Dailey has plenty of similarities of the types of players that Cronin won a massive amount of games with at both Cincinnati and UCLA.
Bilodeau and Oklahoma State transfer Eric Dailey Jr. both came to Westwood around the same time, and there is a chance that Bilodeau could be the sleeper addition of all the players coming in.